Subject: butterfly ID
Location: San Diego County
April 27, 2017 9:00 am
Hi Daniel,
I thought these 2 would be a cakewalk when I shot them. So distinctive. But alas, my insect knowledge is zero. Both photoed in San Diego county CA.
I can’t seem to fit geographic to species. To my untrained eye below looks like a Coyote Cloudywing – but apparently not in Southwestern CA.
(about half the size of a Monarch)
Signature: Gerald Friesen
Hi Gerald,
Thanks for resending your requests using our standard submission form. It really does make posting submissions to our site much easier. We believe this large Skipper is a Funereal Duskywing, Erynnis funeralis, and according to Jeffrey Glassberg’s book Butterflies Through Binoculars The West, the habitat is “A wide variety, including desert, woodland edges, and spruce forest, but preference is for hot, dry situations.” Here is an image from BugGuide. We would not entirely rule out another member of the genus, however, Glassberg also writes “the F[ore]W[ing] is largely black with a pale brown patch beyond the cell. The FW white spots are weakly expressed.” The accompanying image in the book closely resembles your individual.